


Drinks

by TentacleBubbles



Series: Missing Pages [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Bars, Daishou is a serial killer, Drinks, M/M, Saki is a bartender, getting slightly inebriated, he's a detective person, serial killer au, teru is not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 20:30:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15151232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TentacleBubbles/pseuds/TentacleBubbles
Summary: Terushima wasn't one to give up. But what else are you supposed to do when its your own boss telling you to stop?ORTerushima gets kicked off of the Snake case, and decides to drink at a bar where a nice stranger tries to comfort him.





	Drinks

**Author's Note:**

> lmao i never thought i'd write for this more? Well, now I can't promise anything but enjoy?

The Sugar Ink Bar was quiet, only a few patrons scattered amongst the tables. The sultry tunes of a no-name band kept the air languid, a forced relaxed aura making people hesitant to leave. It was the perfect place for Terushima Yuuji to mull over his life choices.

The detective sat at the bar, nursing a bottle of beer half empty. His eyes drooped, not in sleepiness but in remorse. He’d just come from the station, had just received the official orders to hand over the Snake case- _his_ _case_ to some ‘more capable’ detective.

He didn’t even stay to meet his replacement, whoever he was. It wasn’t Terushima’s case anymore, he didn’t care. Bobata can handle the information transfer. They can all go to shit.

Terushima’s grip around the bottle’s neck tightened, an urge to throw it held back. Instead he took generous gulps, until there was no more to drink. The bottle found its way back on the bar, intact. Terushima waved at the bartender for another.

“What’s wrong, sweet cheeks?” the bartender asked, replacing Terushima’s empty bottle with a freshly opened one. His nametag read ‘Saki’, and though Terushima was a regular there, he never found out if it was his actual name or not.

In lieu of an answer, Terushima simply knocked his head back, finishing his beer in one go. With a sour look, he waved the empty bottle in Saki’s direction, asking for yet another one.

“What’s up, did you get laid off or something?” Saki tried again, uncapping two bottles, knowing Terushima would probably end up asking for it anyway.

“No but I might as well have been,” Terushima answered, mustering up a weak smile for a few seconds as thanks for the beer. Remembering his situation as he said it, the detective slumped again, feeling particularly pathetic.

Terushima was halfway through his fourth bottle when someone sat beside him.

He turned his head slightly, noting the way the stranger faced him. Taking in the burgundy jacket, the crisp if slightly wrinkled dress shirt, the carefully styled hair swept to the side, and the friendly smile. Terushima deemed it polite to raise his bottle in greeting, before going back to his lonely little pity party.

“Shou!” Saki looked surprised to see the stranger, something short of pissed passing through his freckled features before being replaced with an uneasy smile, “didn’t think you’d pass by today.”

“Call it a special circumstance,” the stranger, ‘Shou’ provided, and it wasn’t suspicious, “can I have my usual?”

“Of course,” Saki nodded, grabbing a bottle off of one of the higher shelves behind him. While the bartender went about preparing his drink, Shou turned his attention back to Terushima.

“Hello,” he began, glancing between Terushima and his bottles of beer, “did something good happen? Or perhaps, something bad?”

“It’s nothing, just problems at work,” Terushima shrugged, not quite drunk enough to want to share his personal life with suspicious strangers.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Shou said empathically, “did you get laid off?”

Terushima sighed pointedly, not wanting to answer the same question twice. Saki placed a glass of something in front of the stranger, and another bottle of beer in front of Terushima. Shou’s drink was green at the bottom and gradually went to yellow on top. It brought to mind cheesy neon lights. Terushima’s drink was gone in under five silent minutes.

_Now_ he felt drunk enough to want to spill his story. Or at least some of it. Classified shit and all that.

“I was supposed to handle this job,” Terushima began, without any prompting. He glanced at Shou, but the stranger was nodding in encouragement and giving a polite smile. All right then.

“But I guess they didn’t think I was handling it well,” Terushima continued, bitterness seeping into his voice, “replaced me with some genius rookie as if that’d make things better. Not that- I’m not saying he won’t be able to do the job, though, y’know?”

“Of course,” Shou offered, when he realized Terushima was waiting for some kind of response.

“It’s just,” Terushima sighed, nursing a new bottle of beer, “it was _my_ job. And- and to say I couldn’t do it, after all I’ve done? Like, that’s just shit, man.”

Shou nodded again, even though Terushima was staring at the counter.

“Whatever,” Terushima muttered, then louder, “whatever, at least they didn’t fire me completely.”

It was a shit consolation, but it was true. Everyone gets a job like this, something they just can’t quite solve. Maybe Tsuchiyu will let him help, maybe it’ll finally be solved and they can forget about the whole damn thing.

“I’m sure things will look up eventually,” Shou said after a bout of silence, pushing Terushima out of his musings. It was slightly less shit and more generic consolation, but he had to admit it felt a bit nice to hear that.

“Thanks,” his smile was small, but more genuine. Then he patted his pockets sluggishly for his wallet. Maybe he ought to not drink much, for once. Five bottles was fine right? Did he have five or six? Yeah, that definitely wasn’t a good sign.

“Here, I’ll get it,” Shou was a lot more graceful in taking out his wallet and paying for both their drinks. Saki took the bills and the empty bottles from the table wordlessly.

“Man, you’re too nice,” Terushima muttered, leaning on the counter with both elbows.

“You’re drunk,” Shou said, obviously amused. Not that anything was funny, Terushima didn’t think so. What was so funny? Was it something he said?

Before he could think back on what he said, Shou was hauling him up from his seat, arm around his waist and letting the detective lean his weight on him. Saki glanced at the two of them fretfully.

“You gonna get home all right, Terushima?” he asked. He hadn’t really asked that before. Not unless he’d had more than a dozen bottles, at least.

“Yeah,” Terushima waved him off. He wasn’t even leaning most of his weight on Shou, just kind of trusting him to guide him in the right direction.

“We’ll call a cab for him,” Shou assured Saki. Terushima had already turned enough that he didn’t quite see the bartender’s reaction.

They walked out of the bar into the night air. It was halfway through autumn, winter fast approaching. The nights were getting colder and colder, just like the Snake case. Why had the murders slowed? Not that Terushima wasn’t happy going from getting a body every three to four days to getting one every two weeks. It’s just that, the trail’s getting colder, the leads disappearing. Tsuchiyu was going to have his work cut out for him.

Terushima shivered, from the bitter cold or his own bitterness about the case he wasn’t sure. Either way, Shou pulled him closer against him while they waited for a cab to pass by. Terushima appreciated the warmth, even when something pulled at the back of his mind at the sensation. Something felt strangely familiar about the biting cold and the warmth at his back, but he just couldn’t quite figure it out. Not that he was trying very hard.

“Here we go.” Terushima watched Shou flag down a cab, allowing himself to be maneuvered into the backseat. By then, he’d already forgotten that he was trying to remember anything.

“You really are nice,” he mumbled as Shou made sure he wouldn’t fall over. Shou gave him a thin smile.

“Stay safe,” he said, patting Terushima on the shoulder. Terushima was hazy enough that when he put his hand over the spot Shou patted, the man was already pulling out of the cab. He closed the door, and all that was left for Terushima to do was give the driver his address.

The ride was quiet, and Terushima’s mind flitted from thought to thought in a familiar way. He’d been buzzed like this before, it wasn’t a big deal. He kind of regretted the fact that he stopped at five bottles, leaving as soon as he’d dumped his troubles on a complete stranger. A completely _nice_ stranger, at that. But he was also glad to be comforted, and he knew from experience that at least the next morning wouldn’t be as bad on his head as it could’ve been.

Looking back, Terushima didn’t know if it had been chance or not. Like most things, he wished he’d realized it sooner. Wished he’d known when he was once again in the arms of the Snake, even briefly.

**Author's Note:**

> tell me what you think? :D


End file.
